Premier League and Beer – Revisited

As the first few matches of the season (first batches of matches?) have been played, the pairing of beer and soccer still lingered with me. I wrote about soccer marketing before, and it stuck with me. Specifically, I wondered about beer sponsorships. Even more specifically, I wondered about the logos on the kits.

For all US soccer fans, Tim Howard was the hero of the last cup. New supporters probably latched on to him as the face of the team. Old geezer fans like me know he’s been around and probably won’t be there for the next USMNT FIFA World Cup run. One of his highlights was his goal while with Everton. And when he kicked that goal, he had two elephants hidden in the camouflage on his chest.

Chang Beer has been the sponsor for Everton for some time. But I was curious if there were any other primary beer sponsors. I know with promotions and relegations, there is always a rotation of new teams, so the exercise began.

And then it ended, with Chang Beer being the only beer sponsor for a club. Carlsberg Beer is the overall league beer sponsor, but not with the clubs. It was primarily gambling (that’s about right), financial services (it is Barclay’s Premier League after all, for now, so dollars mean something) and UAE Airlines (well, two of them – which I’m researching to see if there are more that exist) this season. Oh well, I guess beer companies would rather sponsor everything around the team than the team itself.